[W]hy do our Navajo Nation leaders make hasty decisions to purchase 16,379 acres of land in Colorado (195 miles south of Denver, to be exact) for $23 million while our Navajo people wait their whole lives to get the basic necessities such as running water?

Twenty-seventeen was a year of staggering change and uncertainty, as an institution that had been propping up the Navajo Nation’s economy for 41 years threatened to close and tribal leaders tried to predict the effect on Indian Country of a wildly unpredictable new U.S. president.

In the remaining 12 months of the Russell Begaye-Jonathan Nez administration and the 23rd Navajo Nation Council, it’s worth considering not just who will seek re-election or what new faces we’ll see on the campaign trail, but to also view the relationship between the legislative and executive branches.